John Oliver slams Texas payday-loan industry, lawmakers

AUSTIN — Comedian John Oliver had some fun at Texas’ expense Sunday night, devoting three minutes of a television segment on the payday-loan industry to conflicts of interest in Lone Star State efforts to regulate lenders.

The segment, which circled the Internet on Monday, continued a trend of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” segments going in-depth on policy issues.

After providing an overview of the industry, which gives high-interest, short-term loans to poor people between paychecks, Oliver turned to a 2011 debate in the Texas Legislature as an example of the lobbying power the industry has nationally.

Oliver showed video of state Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, who owns a company with 12 payday-lending locations, speaking against a bill to regulate the industry from former state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller.

“Isn’t it true that you stand to add to your personal wealth considerably by killing these bills?” Truitt asked Elkin at one point, prompted a mumbling response.

“Mr. Elkins, do you know the meaning of the term conflict of interest?” Truitt piled on.

Oliver then cut in.

“You might be thinking that that woman, Vicki Truitt, is awesome — fearlessly calling out how the payday loan industry influences politicians,” he said. “Which is why it’s going to be so hard to tell you that just 17 days after leaving office, she signed on as a lobbyist for ACE Cash Express.”

Oliver then focused on the chairman of the Finance Commission of Texas, which oversees payday lenders: William J. White, who also happens to be a vice president at Cash America International, Inc.

“So let’s just quickly break all of that down,” Oliver said. “If you were hoping to protect Texans from the payday loan industry, you would need to approach a commission overseen by the vice president of a payday loan company, and then introduce a bill into the state Legislature where the owner of 12 payday loan stores will debate the merits of the payday loan industry with one of the payday loan’s future (expletive) lobbyists.”

The 16-minute segment went on, with Oliver looking to Illinois and Ohio before yielding to fellow comedian Sarah Silverman for a satirical advertisement urging people to consider alternatives to getting a payday loan, such as selling sperm, stealing or throwing yourself in front of a rich person’s car.

Payday lending has been an issue in this year’s governor’s race, with Democratic nominee Wendy Davis calling on White to resign.